Blessings On The Beginning of a New Year

Blessings On The Beginning of a New Year

The Catholic Community Foundation of Waterloo Region began their 2018-2019 year with a Board Meeting in the office at St. Teresa Elementary School. We were led in prayer by Roger Lawler, Trustee and Chair of the Governance Committee.

Roger shared a prayer that is often associated with Blessed (soon to be Saint) Archbishop Oscar Romero. It was, however, first presented by Cardinal Dearden in 1979 and quoted by Pope Francis in 2015. This reflection is an excerpt from a homily written for Cardinal Dearden by then Father Ken Untener on the occasion of the Mass for Deceased Priests, October 25, 1979. Pope Francis quoted Cardinal Dearden in his remarks to the Roman Curia on December 21, 2015. Father Untener was named Bishop of Saginaw, Michigan in 1980.

Roger Lawler shared “It speaks to all who are in service of others, such as the work undertaken by the Catholic Community Foundation of Waterloo Region.”

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fractionof the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of sayingthat the kingdom always lies beyond us.No statement says all that could be said.No prayer fully expresses our faith.No confession brings perfection.No pastoral visit brings wholeness.No program accomplishes the church’s mission.No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.We plant the seeds that one day will grow.We water seeds already planted,knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberationin realizing that. This enables us to do something,and to do it very well. It may be incomplete,but it is a beginning, a step along the way,an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the differencebetween the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.We are prophets of a future not our own.